Before I left for San Diego, I went and bought a new pair of shoes. I knew I’d be doing a lot of walking on my trip and a quick look at my shoe collection instantly revealed I didn’t own a pair that would be up to the challenge. For the last few years, my shoes have skewed heavily towards the more casual side, with skate shoes being the largest contingent. I think I own four or five pairs of skate shoes, all of which came to me free. These are the perks of working on three skateboarding games. Despite being generally comfy, you do not want to walk for long distances in skate shoes. They’re not designed to support your feet while walking and there are other types of shoes that do a much better job of treating your feet right.
I first learned the importance of good shoes when I went to New York City for the first time in 1997. With a pair of Nike ACGs on my feet, it made traversing the long blocks of Manhattan that much easier. I was able to walk and stand for long periods of time without it affecting my feet. For some reason, I forgot or chose to ignore the lessons I learned when I went to Washington, DC in 2010. For whatever reason, I brought a pair of Adidas skate shoes with me as my main “walking around” shoes. What a dumb decision. It didn’t take long for the National Mall to take its toll on my feet. I remember my feet hurting more than I’d ever felt them hurt from walking. I’d make my way from one exhibit to the next within a museum and then having to find a seat to rest my feet. Boy, were my dogs barking on that trip.
Determined to not repeat that mistake again, I did my research and looked for good walking shoes. When I got to the store, I found a pair of Nike walking shoes that I’d read about online. Despite feeling quite comfortable, they looked very plain. As I saw them on my feet, I thought that this was where I turned into a senior citizen and started buying old people stuff. I refused to let that moment happen so I kept looking for another pair. I finally settled on a pair of Nike Air Pegasus 28s. Technically these were running shoes but they felt just as good as those grandpa walking shoes. In fact, they were the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever had on. There was a tremendous amount of cushioning both in the heel and the mid-sole. I actually felt like I was walking on a firm mattress with each step.
I probably walked for miles and miles while I was in San Diego last week and my feet were never a problem. When you are traveling it’s incredibly important to have the right gear and the right shoes are certainly something you shouldn’t overlook.
Welcome to another edition of “Did You Know!!!!?1!?”
Did you know that since the 1970s, there has been a colony of feral chickens that has been living near the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles? Known as the “Hollywood Freeway chickens“, their origins have not been definitively proven but they have lived near the highway for years. Nature always finds a way for life to thrive.
Well, I have arrived home from my little adventure in San Diego. I am quite pleased with my trip and had a great time. I also managed to bring home a healthy haul of hotel moisturizer, soaps, shampoo, and conditioner. I’m off to get some sleep!
As many of you know, I worked for Black Box for many years, the only EA studio in Vancouver that didn’t develop sports games. Once I left Black Box, I kept my eye on the studio as many of my good friends and former co-workers still worked there.
Here’s an interesting fact about Black Box, as a studio, they have laid off a large number of people after every single game they’ve released since 2008. You should also know that EA loves laying people off around the time they announce their financial quarter results.
So, I’ve been somewhat nervous lately because of two things. First, Black Box released their latest game Need For Speed: The Run last November. It was not received warmly by the critics. EA tries to generally target for an 80 average critics score. The Run didn’t even come close to that. The second thing that made me nervous was that February meant the end of the latest financial quarter. Those two things sure pointed towards some layoffs. A whole team that didn’t make a home run hit and didn’t have a new tangible project to work on.
Well today, what had been anticipated for weeks finally happened. I don’t know all the details because I’m still in San Diego but I do know several people have been told they will no longer work for Black Box. Some have been given the opportunity to work with other EA teams, most likely in Montreal, where the industry is much stronger than in Vancouver. I know some people will choose to stay in Vancouver so they’ll take EA’s severance package and move on from EA.
If I could be selfish for a moment, this is not good news for me. Obviously, I don’t like seeing people losing their jobs but also keep in mind I’m also unemployed right now. This development means the pool of unemployed developers in Vancouver is now larger. I already had to compete with the people from the closure of Ubisoft Vancouver but now there is more.
The one question I still have, is there a Black Box anymore? I have a feeling they are not working on a new game right now. So what are the remaining employees doing?
I went to the world-famous San Diego Zoo today. It was the most impressive zoo that I’ve ever seen, though admittedly, I don’t frequent zoos that often.
The first thing I had to see were the pandas. Pandas are such rare animals that you’d be hard pressed to see them in the wild and only a handful of zoos worldwide can host them. Those reasons made them a must-see today. Though it was almost midday by the time I got to the pandas, there was surprisingly very few people at the exhibit. There was no lineup and no waiting, I basically walked up to a railing and stood just a few feet away from one of the most interesting creatures on the planet.
There were two pandas out and about today. One was in a tree, being lazy. This panda was a mom, who has had several cubs in captivity. The second panda was in another area. This panda was one of the mom’s sons. He was also being lazy and lying on the ground.
I watched them for a few precious minutes and then moved on. These animals, while on display, are not here to entertain us in the sense of a show. Pandas, like many animals, do just lie around in the sun for hours a day. The zoo wants them to act as if they are in their natural habitat.
For some of the other animals, I felt kinda sorry for them. I wished they were not enclosed and the freedom to move where ever they wanted. The pandas on the other hand, I think they need some external help at this point. It’s perhaps a good thing that humans are helping them breed.
Last but not least, a bottle of water is $4 at the zoo.
You shouldn’t really go on vacation to watch TV but it’s something I’ve had difficulty in avoiding before I go to bed. At home, I have a pretty crappy TV package so I don’t get a lot of channels. At hotels, including my current one, they have some pretty extensive cable packages so I wind up seeing a lot of shows I don’t normally do.
For some reason, I got fascinated with the A&E channel. I watched several episodes of Hoarders which I’ve seen before but these were new episodes. Then I got caught in Storage Wars marathon. Who knew watching people bid on abandoned storage units would be so entertaining? I also liked watching Shipping Wars where people drive stuff across the US.
Let’s hope I don’t have to say the following to the desk clerk upon check-out:
“I was told the name of movie would not appear on the bill.”
The flight to San Diego is just under three hours which isn’t that long if you manage to catch some shuteye. There were two guys from United Front Games on my flight. I don’t think they recognized me, mainly because I worked at UFG for all of five minutes before I was laid off. They were almost assuredly going down to San Diego to visit Sony as UFG has developed a relationship with them since ModNation Racers.
As soon as I stepped outside the airport terminal it was clear I was not in Vancouver. It was warm, bright, and sunny. I took a cab to my hotel downtown and it was a ten minute drive at most. After checking in, I went out to grab some lunch to go. After eating, the lack of sleep caught to me. Since my flight was so early, I decided to forgo sleeping the night before since I stay up so late anyways. With lunch eaten, I crawled into bed for a nap.
By the time I woke up it was late afternoon so I decided to walk to the pier just west of my hotel. It was at this time I realized the weather turned cloudy and the warmth I felt just hours ago was gone. It was grey and a bit windy, which was sadly a bit reminiscent of the Vancouver weather I just left behind.
The ships of the pier were nice to see but I wished it was a bit warmer. I returned to my hotel and I felt like taking another nap before getting some dinner. That short nap led to me waking up at 10pm. Whoops.
I hope to wake up early tomorrow to get an early start on the day.
My loyal readers, I am headed off to San Diego this morning for a little holiday before I begin my search for new employment in earnest. Some of you may wonder how I chose San Diego. I originally was looking at tropical destinations closer to the equator but the thought of being stuck in an all-inclusive resort by myself for a week seemed boring. I am sure the sun, the water, and the beach would be fun for the first couple of days but then I’d want to do other things. With San Diego, I get the nice weather (the highs are in the 20s this week) and the prospect of an urban adventure.
I don’t have an itinerary set in stone but the things I have in mind to see are an aircraft carrier, pandas, whales, various other creatures, the Pacific Ocean, the sun, museums, galleries, large boats, Tijauana(!), and P.F. Changs. I may not get to all of these things but that’s ok. I’m taking this as a very leisurely holiday. If I spend half a day at the beach collecting bottles and cans that’ll be fine because it’s sunny and warm down there. The weather in Vancouver calls for clouds and rain all week.
Alright, I’ll be in touch with everyone again once I check into my Super 8.
I’m a big fan of tacos and similar items in Mexican cuisine. Lately, my favourite Mexican place has been Chronic Tacos. A few months ago, I noticed an empty storefront down the street had been leased. I wondered what was going in there. It took a few weeks but a small sign got put up indicating there would be a new Chronic Tacos location there. I was so excited! Just steps away from my home was some good eating.
Unfortunately, it took month and months for the store to be built up. I’m not sure what the delay was but it finally opened up this week. A friend of mine decided we should partake in the grand opening by having dinner there on Wednesday night. When we arrived, I had my heart set on a chimichanga, which I admit isn’t the healthiest option. It’s basically a burrito filled with goodness and then deep fried until it is golden. There was a bit of a lineup in front of us. When I got to the front of the line, the lady behind the counter told me they’d just sold the last burrito because they were out of burrito shells. This was at 7pm in the evening. She further volunteered that they were way busier than expected and sold a lot of burritos. Who runs out of simple round flour shells? I was really dejected and had to settle for two tacos with beer battered fish, done baja-style. It was delicious but it wasn’t really my number one choice.
Because I got nothing better to do, I decided I was gonna come back the next day to get my chimichanga. I even tempted fate by arriving at the place later than I had done the night before. Luckily, they still had burrito shells in stock. I finally got chimichanga. The thing was as massive as I remembered it from the first time I had. I basically ate the whole thing which I’m not too proud of. I wasn’t hungry for the entire rest of the night.
Some people set goals like loosing weight, learning a new language, or getting a promotion. I try to eat foods that elude my grasp.
Who knew that office politics at a talk show were the same as any other office? Getting food before other people did was a skill that I acquired working at various video companies.
